Scenes From Space

Chapter Eighteen: A New Planet

Time passed quickly on RAFO as we travelled to the rim planets in the Cymeriane System. We were heading for the planet Gionia. Lyteroon had already moved on from the small planet but it was a good opportunity to see what changes Lyteroon was making in these facilities.

Gionia was a planet that had been terraformed by the Collective specifically to be a small outpost. There was one continent on the planet, and that continent moved quickly from beach to desert, and there was one desolate town in the desert.

The town's name was Mountain, or it was Mountain in Waseatryn. We stalled outside the planet's atmosphere and waited for permission to land. Our ship's credentials would read as a Collective Cargo ship. We were stopping for a refuel and moving on quickly.

"Clear to land," came in over the speakers. Danyl directed the ship down to the single mountain, on the one continent. The mountain had been cut down into three natural landing and refueling stations. There were escalators that carried passengers down the mountain and into the town. The plan was for Grey, Ben, and I to scope out the situation. Ben and I were going to be servants of Grey.

Ben and I stood behind Grey as we were taken down to the dust-bowl of a town. The air on Gionia was dry. The sand was the color of a Texas Longhorns jersey. Grey had taken to his role with great joy, which Ben hated. I was ambivalent.

Grey led us into the one bar. There were, honest to god, swinging shutter doors. I was in the Old West. The Waseatryn bartender looked us over and there was only relief on his face.

"You all have money?" he asked. Or at least that's the way it came through the translator. I imagine he said ya'll instead of you all. The bartender had long grey hair, it fell in reflective waves down to his shoulders. That was odd for a Collective Waseatryn. Usually they kept their hair, unless their hair had more fur like qualities, short and neat.

"Of course," Grey said loftily. He handed a card over to Ben. "Order me something I'll like," Grey commanded.

Ben took the card over to the bar and glanced at the slim selection of bottles behind the long-haired alien. "My master," Ben's face was hilariously stiff, "would like a spiked tea, please." The bartender tapped the see-through card on the counter twice. He then proceeded to pour brown liquid into a glass with a solitary ice cube. Ben carried the glass over to Grey with a scowl on his face. I wanted to tell him that he was a bad actor. I kept my mouth shut.

Grey took a sip and thanked the bartender. I kept my neck bent down and gazed out the window. Grey and the bartender were talking about the excitement that took place during the last sun-cycle. Apparently, Lyteroon had taken all the slaves off the planet yesterday. This planet wasn't going to survive. The bartender and his family had been loyal servants of the Collective for generations and now there was nowhere for his family to go. They lived on a soon to be abandoned planet.

I wanted to feel for his struggles. It was a sad story. But, his family was on the wrong side of history for me.

Tale as old as time. There are two factions. Both sides believed that they were better than the other and they had the one, true way to live. What one faction had was better technology. In the very center of Collective space was the planet Waseatry. There, the species called the Waseatryns evolved. They developed space travel and set out to other planets, and each planet they encountered had a species of intelligent life that was less developed than them. They grew a superiority complex, as a species, that was bigger than the universe they were exploring.

Eventually they encountered a planet that had evolved to a similar level as the Waseatryn Empire. Assymirun was that planet. The Assymirun people had space travel, and had sent delegates out to make contact and to keep peace. They didn't want war or control. The section of the universe that Assymirun was situated in had several well evolved planets. When the planets around Assymirun fell into the control of the Waseatryn Empire, Assymirun resisted. Assymirun resisted until the fight with the Waseatryn Empire became so violent that a missile was launched at the planet Assymirun. The missile was packed full of a chemical reagent that burned anything made of a certain percentage of H2O.

Regardless of what the intention of the missile was, it didn't just destroy plant life, or dry up bodies of water, it disintegrated the Assynmirun people.

The Empire has since re-branded to the Royal Collective of Planets. But, for the remaining few Assynmiruns, for the humans that became slaves, and for the planets that met violent ends when they didn't agree with the violence of the Empire, there was still a fight to be had.

Maybe eventually, the abandoned people on the small planets would join the cause. The bartender seemed to be too indoctrinated in the 'Waseatryns are the smartest, strongest and best species in the known universe' belief to see that his Collective had failed him. He, his family, this planet had no say in their own lives. Everything was at the directive of the empire they served. The only reason this planet existed was because of the Collective, and the Collective could take away their support of their planet with a snap.

To top it all off, the Bartender couldn't leave the planet that the Collective was no longer going to support financially. It was illegal. He had never purchased the credentials for interplanetary life.

Back on the ship, Ben pulled me aside.

"You okay?" he asked in the hallway outside of my room. His hand was resting softly on my right bicep. "You're usually more chatty, and you haven't said anything in a while."

"I need to brush up on political theory," I answered slowly.

"What?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, I, uh, joined the fight for my people because slavery and rape is wrong, and I've been personally hurt by all the bullshit," I answered.

"Right, totally agree," Ben said. His lilac eyes glowed at me. Have you ever seen a princess cut, amethyst ring? That's what his eyes were.

"I just think I need to do some research on how much money the Collective takes and gives out in support and what the Collective's commandments are," I surmised.

"I'll loan you some research material," Ben said.

"I'm on the right side," I said with conviction. I pursed my lips and they moved back and forth across my face a little. "I just also want to have an opinion on how to fix things for when we eventually win." Ben patted my shoulder twice and sent me to bed.